Make Your Own Happiness

My first year teaching was hard. Really, really hard. Anyone’s first year teaching is. But my first year teaching was more than just hard. Not only did I start my first job, but I also moved from Michigan to Germany to Virginia, bought my first house, moved into it, planned my wedding, and lost my maternal grandmother.

I was just 22 years old.

Now, twenty years later, something a colleague told me back then still sticks with me. She had been teaching ten years—half the time I’ve been teaching now—and she seemed so wise and poised and utterly unflappable (I have since learned how to seem that way, too). Her classroom was serene. A ficus tree stood in the corner. White twinkly lights ran the length of her classroom walls along the ceiling. Little teal vallances hung on her windows.

“Your classroom is so…cheerful,” I told her, walking by her room one day, probably on the verge of tears (I usually was).

“Well,” she said, “I’ve learned sometimes, you’ve just got to make your own happiness.”

I did not have time to make my own happiness my first year teaching. Or second, third, fourth, or even fifth year teaching. I was in survival mode.

But I clung to that advice and, eventually, I started to follow it.

• I was gifted a Keurig for my classrom, which to this day I use to make myself a cup of hot tea each morning when I arrive to school.

• I’ve filled my classroom with plants. A lot of plants. Over 20 live plants.

• For Christmas this year, I requested and was gifted a wax melt. My classroom now smells like cinnamon or clean laundry (instead of teen body odors and weed).

• I started a photo collage on the wall of my classroom against which sits my desk. My Wall of Happiness features over 100 photographs of The Littles, Archie, my husband, my family, and my friends. Any time I need a quick pick-me-up, all I have to do is look left.

• I created something called “Below 50 Fridays” for myself. If it’s below 50 degrees Fahreneit on a Friday morning, I make myself hot chocolate (with milk) to take to school.

• Instead of checking email and grading assignments when my students read for fifteen minutes on Mondays, I started reading my own pleasure reading book.

• Instead of working on lesson plans when my students write in their journals for 10 minutes every Friday, I started writing right along with them.

I find it’s good practice to be happy on purpose in my personal life, too. It’s so easy to be sad, stressed, overwhelmed, angry, afraid. Especially right now. Often, I have to actively counter these emotions so I can productively acknowledge and work through them, as opposed to being paralyzed by them.

• When it’s hard to get out of bed in the morning (it almost always is), I try to count at least six good things about the upcoming day. They can be small: I packed double chocolate Oreos in my lunch, I don’t have a faculty meeting after school, I got out my favorite sweater to wear today, etc.

• Every weekday morning, I listen to The Daily Lift podcast to help me get in a positive headspace and set the right tone for the day.

• I pick a “Laundry Show” that I allow myself to watch only when I’m folding laundry, transforming a chore I once dreaded into one I enjoy.

• I hired my friend’s cleaning company to clean my house once a month, buying back my time to do things I’d rather do than clean my house (which is just about anything).

• Most Sundays after church, I stop off at a local riverside park to enjoy a trail run in the woods along the riverbank.

• Every morning I spend ten quiet minutes journaling.

• Every day, I take The Littles for a walk or a hike and practice “Parrot Kindergarten” with Archie.

• The first Sunday of every month, I host a group of friends for what I like to call Sunday Supper Club.

• Every Thursday afternoon on my drive home from school, I enjoy a phone call with my sister.

These are just some of the ways I add bright spots to my life, both at work and outside of work. I’d love for you to share your own tips and tricks in the comments.

What I’m Working On

My Current Work-In-Progress: The Good Curse

I started researching and querying agents a few days after Christmas, which means I’ve also started compulsively checking my email for their responses. Even though I likely won’t hear back from any of them, and the earliest possible date I can expect to hear back is January 26, I can’t seem to stop myself from checking. Just in case. You never know. Maybe I should go check right now…

Wild Senses: A Mindful Creative Writing Workshop

In 2026, I’ll be leading a series of mindfulness writing classes with Dawn Deiman of Rising Dawn Yoga Studio. Our first workshop will focus on the sense of taste and will be co-hosted by a Virginia opossum! It’s scheduled for this Saturday at Possum-Bilities Gift Shop and Gallery in historic Fredericksburg, Virginia. A percentage of the $28 registration fee will benefit animals in the care of wildlife rehabilitators, and participants are also asked to bring an item to donate to the rescue. We still have a few spots open, so if you’d like to join us, sign up today. I’d love to write with you!

Our second workshop, which will focus on touch and feature reptiles, is scheduled for April 12. Stay tuned for further details and registration information!

Outdoor Writing

Last week, I submitted my article about possum yoga for my “Explore More” column in Cooperative Living Magazine. It wil appear in the April issue. Next up: a reptile natural history museum.

Writing Community

Prose and Cons met at the dog-friendly Quirk Hotel for our first critique session of 2026. (Had I realized the dog-friendliness of the venue in time, I might’ve brought The Littles along…)

I’ve registered for and am looking forward to the James River Writers Nuts & Bolts Lunchtime Series called Essentials for Landing a Literary Agent. Although I’ll be teaching during the majority of the sessions, I can watch the recordings, and I’m sure they’ll prove beneficial to my querying efforts.

What I’m Reading

I’m still enjoying Brandon Sanderson’s Tress of the Emerald Sea. No one can accuse me of being a fast reader, at least not when school is in session.

Links to My Latest

My most recent piece, “Walking in a Winter Wonderland: What to know and where to go for wintertime hiking,” appears as the cover story in the January/February issue of Cooperative Living Magazine.

“Welcome Home,” a story I wrote about Archie, appears in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Pets, Pets, Pets.

Archie and The Littles

The Littles run toward me during one of our recent daily hikes.

The Littles are King and Queen of the Mountain.

Soda and Nacho dutifully await my return to the car while I run in for Chinese takeout (photos taken by a friend waiting in the car with them).

Archie sits on my shoulder while I eat lunch.

Archie enjoys shoulder snuggles while I fold laundry and watch my current Laundry Show, Absentia.

What I Saw Outside

Sunlight shines through the trees on a Christmas Eve hike I enjoyed with The Littles.

Literary Calendar

January

• Wild Senses: A Mindful Creative Writing Workshop

  January 24, 2026 | 10am-12pm | Possumbilities, Fredericksburg, VA

  Join Dawn Deiman (Meditation & Mindfulness Teacher) and me for a guided workshop where, through creative writing, mindfulness, and meditation, you’ll engage one of your five senses. This first class will focus on the sense of taste, with future workshops featuring each of the remaining four senses. Awesome Possumz will be in attendance with one of their Possum Ambassadors to help you explore the sense of taste, something this animal is an expert in!

  $28 per person, plus a donated wishlist item (see list of requested items)

  Ages 18+

  Percentage of ticket sales donated to Awesome Possumz

• Register here

April

• Wild Senses: A Mindful Creative Writing Workshop

  April 12, 2026 | 10am-12pm | Possumbilities, Fredericksburg, VA

  This second class will focus on the sense of touch, with future workshops featuring each of the remaining three senses. Awesome Possumz will be in attendance with one of their Reptile Ambassadors.

• Further details and registration information coming soon!